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Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, ''When you strike at a king, you must kill him." Bobby Kennedy said, "Don't get mad, get even." Speaker John Boehner proved Emerson correct and listened to Bobby Kennedy soon after the rebellion to keep him out of the speaker's office was put down.

Florida Reps Daniel Webster and Rich Nugent were booted from the powerful Rules committee. Webster for running against Boehner (and unlike the other candidates didn't even tell the speaker first, distributed fliers outlining his candidacy and talking about how he would better adhere to the House rules) and Nugent was booted for lending Webster his support.

It was a major demotion for both.

But I would suspect that Boehner and the House leadership isn't done meting out the punishment.

Scott Rigell of Virginia who voted for Webster may lose his plum spot on the Appropriations committee. Indiana's Marlin Stutzman not only voted for Webster, but hosted a Monday evening dinner where the Webster candidacy was discussed may find himself removed from the budget committee and on to the dog catching committee if there is one.

Rep. Steve King of Iowa who nominated and voted for Webster said after the vote, “If you cannot vote your conscience … then it’s clearly a dysfunctional system here.” He's wrong its not dysfunction-- its politics. And judging by the list of the 25 Reps who voted against Boehner (and who they voted for) below, there is a lot of punishment to come.

What I can't wrap my head around are the people who can't understand why Boehner and the GOP leadership are retaliating. This isn't the everybody gets a trophy little league game, this is politics and politics is not pretty. If they allowed the "rebels" to get away with opposing Boehner he they would have looked as weak and feckless as many of Boehner's opposition said he was.

Here's a little secret House and Senate leadership of either party expect their membership to vote with them on the really important votes, that's one of the reasons why the number three guy in the caucus is called a whip. Because of all the power that goes with the job vote for Speaker of the House is the most important of all votes in each congress.

The 25 who voted against John Boehner need to be punished, not because they opposed the Speaker, but because they lost. Remember 'When you strike at a king, you must kill him." In the end as Michael Corleone from The Godfather would say, "It's not personal. It's strictly business."